Immigation Reflection

The book I read is called Once upon a Quinceanera by Julia Alvarez. The book didn't interest me to much like it did to the rest of my group members, but over all I enjoyed reading it. I thought it had many good points, and I learned a lot from it. I learned how many things really have to get done in order to have a traditional Quinceanera and how things have changed now that Hispanic families share there tradition with the United States.
I liked reading this book and how we got to blog about what we thought, as well as read what my group members thought about it, which I thought was also interesting to read. I don’t think I wouldn’t change anything about it. Blogging was fun and helpful because when I normally read something all I really remember is what is ended with, but when I blog about it I look back on everything from the beginning to the end. This helped me get a better understanding on what the book is dealing with at the time. I didn’t have many problems with blogging except for sometimes having internet problems, but I learned to email it to myself and post it at school. Other than that I thought blogging was easy and fast. Having a group reading your work was helpful because they commented on it and either told you they agreed with you or told you why they disagreed with you which helped me both ways.
When it was time to work on the art piece I was going to paint I decided to have six pictures on it to symbolize what the book was about, I didn’t want to paint a picture of one object because I thought it was going to be very hard to put in all the things that go on into one picture. I think that my painting had a strong connection with the book I read because it had to deal with a Quinceanera and religion as well as family and much, much more. My final product I think came out really good, over course it could always use some improvement, but overall I liked how it turned out. Some things that I could of changed would be like, finishing some of the lines and paint the background a lot better. Getting to paint what you feel reflects on your art work, is really cool because well it’s what you think and what your thoughts are about the book. I though it was a creative fun way to express what you thought about the book instead of just writing about it.
Not only did we get to write about a book that had to do with immigration and cultures but we also got to interview someone from another country. My in person interview wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, I though it would be nerve racking and difficult but the person was really nice about everything and, in a way it was hard to get detailed answers about the question I asked but overall I thought it went really good. I enjoyed learning about her life and how she adapted to the United States after living in China for years. We were required to interview our person three times, one by email another by phone, and finally in person. I thought it was interesting doing it this way instead of just one time in person. I liked doing it this way because the person your interviewing you don’t know at all so it would be weird to meet them in person and just as them a whole bunch a questions.
The person I interviewed told me about how things were so much different in China than it was in America, like how when you had to go to the grocery store you would have to stand out side of a food stand and ask for what you wanted in order to buy what you needed, not like in America where you could just walk in a store and buy what you needed your self. I though that was interesting because I’ve never herd of it. In a way the person I got to interview gave me a better understanding on what we were learning in class then again she really didn’t give me that much of a detailed answer. I couldn’t contact my person again but I thanked her by email and made her a scrapbook that contained pictures of her family and her home town, I love scrapbooking and I though it turned out good. It also made me feel better about giving someone something back for the time she put in to tell me about her life story. Overall I really liked this project and enjoyed getting to meet someone new.